MITSUGIRLYS extensive extra Sky review

[mitsugirly]

So that completes the actual "ship" tour of the floors.

 

Here's a little extra added bonuses of things I took around the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one thing I noticed about the Sky was the elevators all looked the same inside (where the Sun was different in each)

 

 

 

They had the same type of carpet except the Sky had carpet like this:

 

 

Notice all the fish swimming in the same direction? On the Sky it was the exact same carpet except you had 1 little black fish swimming the opposite way every foot or so. (You know, NCL's trademark fish type of thing?) I missed that on this. Sakari and I made fun of the black swimming fish on the Sun. It was fun.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

You know how the new ships have the touch screens that you can see anything about the ship? You can make reservations to eat, shows, maps and so on? Well the Sky has it too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Now onto my tour of the stairways...as I always do. I did this on the very first day (and drug my family along with me) to get it over with. LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

The carpet, which seems to be a pattern I see on a lot of the ships.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know...I really liked the stairways on this ship. It was so different than a lot of the others and I liked it better than the Sun. It was "interesting" and I liked how it went from top to bottom. When you were in the hallways and looking up or down at the stairs, you always noticed the stairway, unlike if there's just a picture of something hanging on the wall there. :)

[mitsugirly]

I'm enjoying this part of your review, too. I'm seeing things I forgot about from our Sky cruise.:) Il Adagio is a pay restaurant at night (Italian food) and was very good.

Heather

 

Oh, thanks for clearing that up for me. I was wondering since NCL's page said it was a paid Italian restaurant, but yet we never paid. I never did adventure off into there at night. :)

Blurry. You could not have taken those pictures! Who got a hold of your camera? LOL

 

Night photos' date=' no flash=sometimes blurry hand-held pictures. But, even if I would have been standing directly in front of the camera with the flash on, you would not be able to spot me....Guess why???

 

 

BECAUSE THERE WERE SO MANY FRICKEN PEOPLE ON THIS CRUISE YOU COULDN'T MOVE!!! ARHHHHH UGGGHHH SIIIGGGHHHHH! :( :eek: :cool:

[mitsugirly]

Ok, so I am at the end of the ship photo tour.

 

Next up will be our daily activities and ports. Stay tuned if you are interested in that.

 

....but, that will have to be tomorrow. I am physically and mentally spent today after seeing my patient. I just don't have the strength to go on and I came home a little emotional tonight...which doesn't make for good writing material. ;)

 

I'll see everyone tomorrow to continue with our day 1 adventures. :)

[New2cruise1483]

I followed your Sun review, LOVED it, and feeling the same about this review so far! I've never given much thought to sailing the Sun or the Sky, both being two of NCL's older, smaller ship. However, After reading your reviews and seeing your pictures, I've fallen in love with them! They are gorgeous! NCL should hire you as a professional reviewer with you photographic and writing talent. They would earn a good bit of business because of you :). I can't wait till after you Dawn cruise to hear your thoughts in her. She was our first cruise, and she will always hold a special place in my heart, and in my opinion, had one of the most beautiful atriums! Keep up the good work, and can't wait till your next installment :D

[FreestyleNovice]

I will be interested in hearing if you had the same experience that we did. :)

 

Will let you know when you're finished with your great review! Overall I can say we enjoyed the Sky, it's not as fancy as the newer ships but it's great value for money for a shorter cruise.

[janpo]

Thank you thank you thank you for posting the pictures of the Sky! It always helps to see the ship ahead of time to see what you're in store for.

 

I heard that Adiago was free for lunch and glad you confirmed that. I didn't know they had breakfast there also. We will be doing lunch there also for the pasta and pizza.

 

Looking forward to hearing your day to day experiences and thoughts of this ship.

 

Coming from the Getaway , I hope it's not a let down. We have a family ocean view cabin on this cruise . The Getaways ocean view cabin was huge. Pretty sure this one won't be. hahaha

 

Are the bathrooms tiny ?

[patter44]

Thank you for your wonderful reviews. I am still trying to catch up with the Sun but the Sky was what I was waiting for. Also looking forward to your day to day thoughts on the Sky.

 

We were just on the 4 day Dec. 8th cruise and after seeing your beautiful glass elevator atrium photos noticed that Santa must have visited the Sky between your cruise and ours ;).

[Perfect Stranger]

Does Sakari have her two front adult teeth already? I usually see 7 year olds with missing teeth. She's beautiful.

 

Enjoying Part II of your cruise review.

[mitsugirly]

I followed your Sun review, LOVED it, and feeling the same about this review so far! I've never given much thought to sailing the Sun or the Sky, both being two of NCL's older, smaller ship. However, After reading your reviews and seeing your pictures, I've fallen in love with them! They are gorgeous! NCL should hire you as a professional reviewer with you photographic and writing talent. They would earn a good bit of business because of you :). I can't wait till after you Dawn cruise to hear your thoughts in her. She was our first cruise, and she will always hold a special place in my heart, and in my opinion, had one of the most beautiful atriums! Keep up the good work, and can't wait till your next installment :D

 

Awww, I'm blushing now. Thanks for the wonderful comments.

 

IMO, one of the smaller ships that is a must see with beautiful Asian decor is the Spirit. We absolutely loved her. She's so different than any others in the fleet and so far my favorite ship that isn't new. :)

 

Will let you know when you're finished with your great review! Overall I can say we enjoyed the Sky, it's not as fancy as the newer ships but it's great value for money for a shorter cruise.

 

Thanks, I'll be waiting. :)

[mitsugirly]

Thank you thank you thank you for posting the pictures of the Sky! It always helps to see the ship ahead of time to see what you're in store for.

 

I heard that Adiago was free for lunch and glad you confirmed that. I didn't know they had breakfast there also. We will be doing lunch there also for the pasta and pizza.

 

Looking forward to hearing your day to day experiences and thoughts of this ship.

 

Coming from the Getaway , I hope it's not a let down. We have a family ocean view cabin on this cruise . The Getaways ocean view cabin was huge. Pretty sure this one won't be. hahaha

 

Are the bathrooms tiny ?

 

On the Sky it was open for lunch, not breakfast. The Sun is where they had breakfast there. ;)

 

It will be a lot different than the Getaway for sure. There's not much to do compared to the Getaway, of course it's much smaller (but easier to navigate for this reason), doesn't look "new" and "shiny" like the Getaway, but the way I see it, it's a cruise and it's being away from home, so well worth it. :D

 

Since we only stayed in an interior, I couldn't comment on the size of the OV cabin, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I was thinking I read that up to the balcony cabins all had the small round shower and just the suites don't? But I'm not sure and someone else would have to answer that question.

 

Thank you for your wonderful reviews. I am still trying to catch up with the Sun but the Sky was what I was waiting for. Also looking forward to your day to day thoughts on the Sky.

 

We were just on the 4 day Dec. 8th cruise and after seeing your beautiful glass elevator atrium photos noticed that Santa must have visited the Sky between your cruise and ours ;).

 

Thanks for sharing the beautiful picture of the atrium. We have been cruising in December for a few years and have been able to see the ships we were on all decorated for Christmas. My husband insisted on NO Christmas cruises now (it gets too hectic at his store and coming back 3 days before Christmas really puts a toll on us trying to get last minute things done) and I miss seeing it all decorated. :(

[mitsugirly]

Does Sakari have her two front adult teeth already? I usually see 7 year olds with missing teeth. She's beautiful.

 

Enjoying Part II of your cruise review.

 

Yes, she has her 2 upper front and 2 lower front adult teeth now and she's working on another one of her lowers that she claims has been "wobbling" for awhile. I know her dentist said she probably wouldn't loose those teeth until she was at least 6 years old-almost 7 and it was maybe 2 weeks after her 6 year old visit with him that she lost both upper teeth. :eek: She had just turned 6. It was kind of freaky because her adult teeth came in BEFORE the others came out...so she had 4 teeth in that one spot for awhile!!! :eek:

 

I bet you could tell by the wavy bottom of her upper teeth huh? I hate that and don't remember my 3 other kids having this. The dentist said it's normal and it would eventually wear down and be nice and smooth and straight. Hoping he's right otherwise he can file that stuff down! LOL

[mitsugirly]

So, back to the ship and our daily activities.

 

Once we made it up to the pool deck, we decided we were starving. We wondered into Il Adagio, since being on the Sun, we thought maybe we would get lucky on this ship too with an "extra" place to eat...plus it didn't hurt to see people going in and out of there...and YES! They were serving food...and it was basically a pasta bar! I was excited. Wait, there's pizza too!!! Double excited since we only found pizza one night on the Sun.

 

We of course decided to go for the pizza. There was a long line and they couldn't make the pizza fast enough. I know at one point I headed over to the buffet to check it out and the lines were even longer. So, I quickly came back and stood in my spot in line.

 

 

Now I have to say this pizza wasn't as bad as the "delivery" pizza we've had, but it wasn't as good as the pizza that I have had in the buffet on other ships either. There's just something about this cheese. It's like FAKE or something. I mean just look at all that cheese....I'm a cheese lover, but not a fake tasting cheese lover.

 

 

 

We enjoyed our "seating" arrangements and I kept staring outside hoping to see a dolphin or something. I have yet to see a dolphin swimming by the ship and read about others who see them in port all the time.

 

Sakari found a "pet dragonfly" It sat on her hand forever. I finally had her take it outside to let it go.

 

 

 

Since we are still in port and have free phone service...I had to give the guys back home another picture...

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Courtney is giving real pictures...

 

 

We wondered out of the restaurant and headed out trying to find the rest of the family.

 

We found them eating at the Outdoor buffet.

 

[mitsugirly]

After everyone ate, my grandson and his cousin decided they wanted to go swimming. I really didn't want to let Sakari go in for several reasons...one, she a bear when it comes times to try to get her out of the water and two I knew we would be having the life boat drill soon and didn't want to deal with a sopping wet child and three, I didn't pack her bathing suit just for this reason.

 

We went over and played a little ping pong

 

 

They decided it was a little hot and we would walk around the ship a little to explore.

 

 

 

When it was time for the lifeboat drill, we reported to our station outside to stand. When we arrived, Kendra and the rest of the family was already there. She warned us that the guy in that section had been extremely rude and she was right!! He was screaming at everyone and at one point said "You guys don't want to piss me off!"...but in a "girly" voice...if you know what I mean.

 

He was having a fit saying everyone "had to be perfect in line, how hard is that". Then he wanted people in line from tallest in the back to shortest in the front. Well, that put our kids at the front, by themselves...I don't think so. Then he'd give his little "ooookkkkaaayyy????" It was irritating. He was yelling at everyone. At one point, I looked over and caught my grandson STANDING ON THE RAILING!!! I screamed...it was so embarrassing and he immediately ordered my daughter and her family inside. Geesh! My heart was pounding and I would have nightmare of this the rest of the cruise! It wasn't very much longer he was irritated with us as well because Sakari would turn around to say something to us, being only 6 years old she doesn't quite understand why we have to do this every time and what the meaning of it is...she thinks the boat is sinking and wants to know why we are standing in line instead of getting off the ship. He orders us inside. Fine with me.

 

Inside it was cool and there were places to sit down. My daughters bf's leg was hurting from all the standing anyhow.

 

 

After the drill, we stayed in Dazzles for a moment and the kids decided to dance a little.

 

 

Then we headed over to the kids club to sign up the munchkins for Splash Academy. I really liked the way it looked compared to the Sun. It was so bright and "kid-like".

 

Our rooms were ready (I have to add that they had the rooms ready when we first got on the ship and we managed to put our heavy luggage down in the closet and leave).

 

 

Our luggage arrived fairly quickly and we were just down the hall from where they were coming out at. We were able to spot ours and they allowed us to take them to our rooms. (We had the kids doing all the work).

 

I quickly put away all of our things...well, I attempted to but you know how the "space" to put it away wasn't very "friendly" to put things. It was a mess and stuff was just stacked on top of each other. I'm so glad that I wouldn't be spending an entire week on this ship with a weeks worth of clothes I had to find space for.

 

When Sakari's luggage arrived...this was the condition it was in...

 

 

I tell ya, I don't know if we cruise too much or we just have crappy luck with our luggage, but over the last few years, all of our luggage has taken a beating.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Of course one of the first things I do is to remove the stuff out of the refrigerator. Only this time it was LOCKED!!! Yikes! I tried calling housekeeping and the customer service desk...NO ANSWER. I let it ring forever and still no answer. I tried calling back several times...nothing. Ugh. That meant I wasn't going to be able to get my soda in it to start getting cooled down.

 

We had several notices in our room. This was addressed to me and Sakari...I thought it was weird because I wasn't celebrating anything...other than passing the nursing boards, but they didn't know that.

My hubby was celebrating a birthday, but that was last week. My son, in the other room, stated he got one too. It was his birthday 2 weeks ago. So maybe they give you the entire month to celebrate?

 

 

Yea, I guess that was it.

 

 

 

 

 

Of course we got the latitudes letter. However, I didn't see anything about a latitudes party??? Maybe they don't do those on short cruises. I guess there would be no free booze for us on this cruise.

 

 

 

There was the captains party, but we never manage to go to those.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Of course they have the shore excursion information...which we wouldn't be using this time around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

It was time for the sailaway and I headed toward the front of the ship to get pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

When we made it to the end, I knew it was time to head down to the pool deck for the party.

 

 

 

My daughter was down there waiting on me to dance and we quickly jumped in.

 

Then the Sky dancers came on and did their little routine. Sakari picked out the "dancer" she wanted as "hers". She loved the other girl from the Sun and was always dancing with her and running into her. She told me "Mommy, we are on a different ship now and I need a new person, I want her".

 

I went up and told the dancer her "story" and she quickly adopted Sakari and danced with her and said she was honored that she was the chosen one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the dancing was over, we headed to the bar for a drink.

 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2014 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

Do you see anything in this picture?? It's not my "normal" pictures...why? Because there are SO MANY PEOPLE ON THIS SHIP!!! YIKES! This is the most crowded ship ever!

 

 

 

 

We were about to spend the next 5 days waiting in long lines, fighting for a table to sit down and eat at, standing room only at times, no chairs and the list goes on. I might as well been on one of the newer ships with 5000 people on it. It was horrible IMO.

 

 

 

Someone take me back to the Sun with the people movers and 3 legged people please.

 

We decided to head to the buffet again to find something to eat and let the kids eat again before shipping them off to the kids club.

 

I really didn't find anything that looked too appealing to me so I settled for a salad.

 

 

 

I checked the kids club schedule and headed that way

 

 

 

 

 

We headed to the casino after dropping them off and didn't have too much luck. I took $50 with me and by the time I stopped playing, I had a ticket for $37. The hubby decided to try his luck at craps and did decent.

[janpo]

Not like hearing how crowded it was! Hoping its not that bad in January.

[mitsugirly]

After leaving the casino, we headed to the photo shop to check out our photos taken earlier in the day.

 

They always have this special they run.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We picked the kids up from the kids club and they decided they wanted to go swimming...on the back of the pool at the kids area.

 

We pretty much hung out there the rest of the night with the entire family eating and having some drinks while the kids played in the pool. The hot tub was completely loaded with adults...completely packed. Sakari, being the friendly social bug she is, decided she was getting in that hot tub no matter what. She went in and stood in the middle of all of them. It didn't seem to bother them and none of them left. It did kinda sit wrong with me though...her being the only child in there and I made an attempt to lure her out after awhile...coaxing her with food. It worked.

 

 

I was really in the mood for some wings, but they were not serving the "comfort" foods yet. Darnit. I hate not being on a ship without the 24/7 restaurant.

 

While we were sitting and watching the kids in the pool, we noticed heat lightening off in the distance. It was actually really pretty and it was off toward another ship in the distance. I tried and tried to capture the pictures of it over the ship, but with a point and shoot camera, it's just not possible. This is the one time that I wished I had brought my dslr.

 

So, you'll have to settle for just a ship in the night picture.

 

 

 

We made it back to the room and once again, I tried calling the service desk and housekeeping to get my refrigerator opened...still no answer.

 

I did run into the room steward and told her I needed it open. She was able to get the keys and get it opened for me.

 

Is it just me or did this seem pretty darn empty? I thought it usually has a lot more in it. Maybe it's because it was only a 4 day cruise?

 

 

I emptied it out and put it on the top shelf above the tv. I figured I wouldn't ask for it to be removed from my room since we weren't going to call this home for very long.

 

She ask me "how many" people in the room. I told her 3 total. After that...the next time she cleaned the room, our towels went down to only 2 and so did our beach towels. I'm sorry, this is where I have to say wth??

 

She also didn't even empty the trash when she cleaned tonight or take out our dirty drink glasses we brought from around the ship. She also didn't replace our water glass, which had soda in it from earlier with a clean glass. Sigh. What is with these 2 ships not replacing the dirty cups? Is this like the towel? You have to put them on the floor to let them know you want clean? Really???

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Sakari did her normal thing...drawing, while I continued to organize the room and stock the refrigerator with our soda.

 

 

 

This was her creation for the night.

 

 

We knew we would be in port early the next day and it was already later than what I wanted it to be. I called to set the wake up time for 6:30am, took my shower....beating the shower curtain this time around and not allowing it to get the best of me, and then heading to bed.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Ok, I have an appointment with a patient, an appointment to pick up the title to my sons new car we got him for Christmas :D and heading to the office. So, it will be a little while before I get back to continue with our next day of activities...Grand Bahama/Freeport, Bahamas....going to Paradise Cove/Dead Mans Reef. Our very first visit to Freeport.

 

See everyone in a few hours. :D